Press Conference on National Aboriginal Day Tuesday June 21 at 9:30 amAboriginal Front Door, 384 Main Street (corner Hastings)

June 20, Vancouver Coast Salish Territories – A coalition of Downtown Eastside, women’s, Aboriginal and advocacy organizations are strongly condemning the BC government’s decision to not grant the resources necessary to ensure their meaningful participation in the Missing Women’s Inquiry.

The groups have written a joint letter to Premier Christy Clark, stating that “This denial of resources denies due process and denies the possibility of meaningful participation by the women most affected – particularly Aboriginal women living and working in extreme poverty – by the deaths and disappearances of women who were their friends and family.”

The groups are holding a press conference on Tuesday June 21st at the Aboriginal Front Door to demand that the provincial government overturn its decision. The groups are calling on Premier Clark to make this Public Inquiry accessible to the public, particularly to women, Downtown Eastside residents, Aboriginal communities, and others who have critical information. The groups and community have been demanding an inquiry for decades but were consistently ignored, and are now being marginalized and shut out again.

In their letter to Christy Clark, the groups further state that “Without the participation of Downtown Eastside women and the groups granted standing, there is serious doubt cast on the proceedings as they are not representative of the parties involved. What is the benefit of having the RCMP and the VPD rehash what happened solely from their perspective? It is vital to this Inquiry that the voices of women and the community be front and centre when determining its recommendations. It is unconscionable that BC Government is demonstrating the same dismissive attitude as the very institutions being investigated in this Inquiry for the deaths and disappearances of women.”